Supernova simulator recreates elements that form when stars die

DON’T try this at home. For the first time, a lab experiment has probed the nuclear physics inside a dying star.

When a star explodes, trillions of tonnes of gas collapse inwards before bursting into a supernova. As this happens, elements fuse to form heavier elements – but the details of the process are unclear.

A team based at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, simulated the event by confining 100,000 ruthenium ions in a device called a particle storage ring, where the ions interacted with hydrogen. Sometimes they picked up a proton to become the heavier rhodium (Physical Review C, doi.org/7f8). The experiment can help to update models of how heavy elements are forged.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Supernova forge tested in the lab”